Ahhh, trust and patience, two things that often elude me. I have been a Christian since I was a little girl, I grew up in a family where trusting God was as normal as breathing and yet its a lesson I have to learn over and over. Quite a few of my friends and family have been going through very difficult situations lately. Many are due to illness and the rest due to life situations that emerge. I have found myself praying more than ever before. Not the ’sit down with a paper and pad and go through a list’ type of praying (which should work for me considering my affinity with ‘to do’ lists and my love of stationery) but more the ’shoot a prayer to heaven’ or ‘pray as I do a mundane job’ sort of thing. Some of the things I’ve been praying about have been answered in the way I hoped they would be but most are just drifting there, waiting.
A couple of weeks ago while compiling my first Weekly What List I decided on the spur of the moment to put ‘memorise a verse’ on that list. I haven’t really memorised a verse since I was at Bible college, around 17 years ago (unless you count Colin Buchanan songs). That’s pretty shameful I think for someone who says they live by the Bible.
I decided to look for a verse surrounding the theme of trust. I had memorised Proverbs 3: 5-6 when I was a kid so that wasn’t an option. Instead I chose a verse that I probably skimmed at some point. Its full of words that we all see as Christian cliche’s such as ‘hope’, ‘trust’, ‘joy’ and ‘peace’ which is why I would have skimmed it.
I have to admit, I didn’t remember that I was meant to be memorising this until around half way through the week. I started to memorise bits and eventually it all stuck. Then I decided I’d better actually figure out what it means, what’s the point otherwise? Here’s the verse:
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace
as you trust in him,
so that you may overflow with hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So, here’s my version:
As you trust in the God who gives hope, may he fill you with joy and peace, the result of this is that his hope will overflow out of you via the Holy Spirit’s power.
The thing I realised was that in order to have true joy and peace in your circumstances you first have to trust God. The way to do this is to realise that he is in charge of all hope. He gives hope. He is hope. To use the dictionary definition, he is the one to whom we can look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence (I chose the verb definition as hope is a doing word for me, not static).
Thats pretty good news. We all need someone we can have confidence in even when things don’t seem right around us and who better than the person who not only made us but can see the bigger picture of how things will end.
So, that’s my verse from the last two weeks. The end result of trust in God is hope and the side benefits are joy and peace.
The verse I’m meant to memorise this week is this one, chosen because my jar of patience seems to have evaporated (must have left the lid off). Better get memorising hey!
Ecclesiastes 7:8
The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.